The "Democrats Miss The Meaning?" Uh, NO, Peggy Noonan Misses The Meaning - Blinded By The Trumpism Mind Virus

As I noted in previous posts, it is often amusing to see the lengths to which conservative writers will bend themselves into pretzels to try to criticize the Brat -in -chief, but without upsetting his brainwashed deplorables, otherwise known as the MAGA Walking dead, i.e.


In a way this "tiptoeing"  approach is understandable given that each time Trump  

gaslights or dispatches another dog whistle his lapdogs are sure to growl, bark and maybe even bite. They also have been shown to have a low tolerance to op-ed writers (even in the WSJ) who don't kiss Trump's butt....errr, "ring" with the proper obeisance.

So it is understandable WSJ op-ed columnist Peggy Noonan ('The Democrats Miss The Meaning' Aug. 22-23, p. A13):

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-miss-the-meaning-11597980333

would tread carefully, but in this case to the point of contradiction, confusion and utter absurdity.   On the one hand we can applaud her effort to give credit where it is due, in the handling of the Democratic National Convention and its "Zoom" formula.  As Chris Hayes put it last Friday on 'All In: This is what you have when you are in the middle of a pandemic.  This is the new normal"

Indeed, so it isn't necessary to begin one's column writing:

"To be fair in critiquing certain public events you have to be like a judge in the Olympics and factor in degree of difficulty. No one had ever done a Zoom convention before, so no one knew how to do it. Should there be a host each night? Should it be an earnest actress? Does that make us look shallow? Do we want to look shallow?  What hadn’t been done before was done rather poorly, with high schlock content. You got the impression no one creative or daring was authorized to be either."...

Hmmmm.... sour grapes to say the least.

In fact, given the limitations it was a resounding success, all Peggy's twaddle to the  contrary. It was perhaps the "gold standard" for a convention conducted in the middle of a pandemic with only some minor peanut gallery complaints, e.g. the Dems didn't allot enough time for AOC (she did get ample for what she had to do), and there was no Julian Castro  (Castro turned down the invitation to speak).  Other than that the showcasing of diverse people was nothing short of stellar and we especially enjoyed Obama's takedown of the bloated orange fungus fouling the White House, Michelle Obama's warning, and the roll call of the states. The visual for that bested anything seen in historical conventions.    

At least Peggy and I agreed on Barack Obama's masterful speech, as she wrote:

"Barack Obama's speech will stick in history, it won't just slide away. No former president has ever publicly leveled anything like this criticism at a sitting successor."

Noting accurately how Trump "never took the job seriously" and never "grew into the office of the presidency".  How could he,  watching TV  (FOX)  seven hours s day and tweeting nonstop the another three?   As NY Times columnist David Brooks described it:

"His speech was fiercely pro-American and fiercely anti-Donald Trump, showing that to be fiercely pro-American you have to be fiercely anti-Donald Trump."

Well, because Trump is the archetypal anti-American, ready to praise Putin and Russia at the drop of a hat but willing to tear down every constitutional norm and principle that makes this country great.  SO it is cognitively dissonant at one point to read in Noonan's essay:

"Apart from the We the People gauziness there was a nonstop hum of grievance at the convention. To show their ferocious sincerity in the struggle against America's injustices, most of the speakers thought they had to beat the crap out of the country."

Which is, alas, exactly the inverse take to what was said. Rather, the speakers highlighted TRUMP'S injustices done in America's name!  From separating migrant infants from parents and locking them up, to allowing a storm trooper   attack on peaceful protesters, both in D.C. (to enable Dotard to hold a fake bible as a PR stunt) and in Portland.  The mission and portrayal then wasn't to "beat the crap out of the country" but to beat the crap our of what TRUMP has let the country become.  As Tim O'Brien has aptly pointed out (Bloomberg News):

"Trumpism has fostered a cult of personality around Trump, allowing him to posture as the final arbiter of truth and guardian of the downtrodden. But division, chaos an disrepair - and the corruption of the American experiment - are the long term consequences."

Hence, no good thing can really be said of our nation until and unless the Trump interregnum is totally canceled, extirpated. Only then can we rebuild the nation to what it was,  what it could be.  Right now, with the Trump cancer we are pitied around the world, as we should be. 

Trumpism then has defiled not only the office of the presidency, but the government at large - undermining every agency with Trump toadies, from the FDA, to EPA, to USPS,  CDC, DOJ and HHS -  thereby ripping asunder the nation's aspirations and principles as a whole.  See e.g.

Feeling the Consequences of Trump’s Rotten Presidency, First Hand

One wonders why this is so difficult for Noonan to process, then one realizes she's trying to walk a weasel's 'tightrope' and not offend Trump's deplorables too much before the RNC.  

So it is also choice to see her ask: "Do Democrats understand how hunkered down many people feel, psychologically and physically, over the past six months??"

Of course, Peggy, since they have been hunkered down too! Dems are not space aliens walking among us and impervious to the slings and arrows of Covid 19.   They are every bit equally affected, from determining how much elderly relatives need to be protected to how soon their kids can return to real classrooms.   But they are also perceptive enough to know this hunkering down, and re-hunkering down, did not have to be this traumatic. Not if Dotard Trump the wannabe dictator had followed a coordinated strategy to contain the virus - as opposed to pissing the time away.   We know this because it's been well-documented, e.g.

Trump Has Sabotaged America's Coronavirus Response

Excerpt:

" In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion."

 Instead of grasping all this Noonan prefers to divide and sow polarization like Trump - who recall, she asked to resign in a previous column.   Peggy and her sidekicks at the WSJ may not like to hear it but the DNC was light years beyond the asinine clown show on offer from the Repukes this week, in sobriety, diversity and responsibility.  As one MSNBC commentator put it this morning: "The Republican Convention has been just a forum and show for a dictator in training which is why we need to remove him."


See Also:

The 2020 RNC Isn't a Political Convention — It's a Celebration of the Trump Cult

by Heather Digby Parton | August 27, 2020 - 8:12am | permalink

— from Salon


And:

Fascism | Republicans

Were Don Jr. And Kimberly “Coked Up”? Maybe Not, but It's All Part of the Fascist Tradition

by Amanda Marcotte | August 26, 2020 - 8:11am | permalink

— from Salon

And:

My RNC review: Hannibal Lecter’s dinner party was visually sumptuous

And:

First Family

Melania Trump’s Redesigned Rose Garden is a Massacre

by Samuel Vargo | August 27, 2020 - 6:24am | permalink

And:

Donald Trump

Don’t Let This Mad, Manic President Wear You Down

The Economic VIX Index, Stock Behavior and Kneecapping Trump's 'Edge' On The Economy

"Gimme four more years and I swear I'll crash it for good!"

A large number of investors are fortunately familiar with the VIX or volatility index.  Basically the Vix volatility index,  is Wall Street's  "fear gauge".  It is a barometer of how unstable stocks are in responding to current crises or shocks.  For example, the VIX shot to its highest level in  3 years on Feb. 5, 2018 following the Congressional Budget Office's reaction to the passage of the Trump-GOP tax cuts.   This was on the heels of projections of $1, 083 trillion in borrowing costs for 2019, and $1,128 trillion in 2020.   The street's reaction conveyed in the VIX then was traced to the enormous borrowing costs projected for successive years.

Unlike the VIX, there is another measure called the Economic VIX Index, created by Jim Paulsen, a chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group. This index reflects the volatility  in growth.   It's important now because its history over the decades since World War II shows two things:

1) Stocks do best when economic volatility in the U.S. is at its lowest.

2) Stocks do best when economic volatility in the U.S. is at its highest.

It is clear that the stock bubble currently is feeding off of (2) which in turn is being driven by the pandemic.  In other words, the pandemic - not Trump-  is responsible for the incipient volatility which in turn is a function of the uncertainty.  Hence, the pandemic is controlling the economy.  As Frank Trentmann writes in The New Republic (September, p. 33):

"What makes this virus so damaging is its synchronized effect on activities that depend on mobility and proximity.  Fewer tourists and business travelers translate into fewer hotel and restaurant guests and fewer visitors to shops, special exhibitions, concert halls, and musicals....The virus has effectively stopped several pistons of consumer economy at once. Tourism and mobility, restaurants and retail, live entertainment and sports.  Each of these is a big sector in its own right."

Which of course makes it even more imperative the virus be brought under control, something Trump and and his retinue of ass clowns have been unwilling to do. See also e.g.

The Virus Controls The Economy - Not The Reverse: ...'

This is critical to process, given one of  the confounding aspects of current polls is the seeming edge Trump has in the handling of the economy - which for many also includes stocks (given people are looking at their 401ks as well as unemployment numbers)  Indeed, the careful observer can surmise that Trump is getting credit for what the economy WAS, pre-pandemic, not how the looming recession,  job losses, immense suffering (especially for many about to be evicted) are directly his fault for his mishandling of the response to the pandemic.  This indeed is a connection Dems need to make in their convention because clearly too many voters are not making it - else Biden would be ahead of Trump in the economy category too.

Most savvy people who actually follow events, as well as serious economists, are quite aware Trump's oafish, belated, incoherent response to the pandemic in the U.S. - including calling it a "hoax" for 2 weeks, and not having a coordinated national policy (like mandating masks ) is why the U.S. is floundering compared to so many other nations that got their acts together.  That chaos in turn is why there has not been a coherent reopening and why people (including teachers) are still not able to return to work with confidence, or go out to eat or whatever with any confidence.  In many ways Trump then has wrecked the economy,  not done anything to help it and much more to crash it.

But this is what the Dems now need to drill into people's heads.  (Many of whom are likely 'low information' voters).  This is especially as Jim Paulsen was quoted last week (WSJ, Business & Investing) as warning:

"Over the next four quarters we'll have a level of economic volatility  never before seen in the postwar period.  It will blow away the volatility of the 2007-09 recession when the Economic VIX shot up to its previous postwar peak."

His comment implies the havoc caused by Covid 19 will continue apace, and also there is little chance the virus will be under control - certainly so long as Trump is heading the government.  That means stocks will likely dive as much as rise, even as homelessness spikes and job creation sputters in the absence of a coordinated national strategy - including testing and contact tracing.

But this also means stocks are likely to continue to do well, even as the Main Street economy craters and Biden - if elected- is likely to inherit a mess ten times worse than what the credit crisis left Obama back in 2009.  Why then would stocks continue to do well in such an atmosphere of upheaval, uncertainty, and volatility?  According to Paulsen:

"This is because the economy is in an unsustainable situation and everyone is working to improve it, both government and companies.  So policy officials are scared to death and they are bringing every conceivable tool they have to get us out of the situation."


But again, we need to clarify here this is based on an expectation. But that hopeful, optimistic expectation, i.e. that "everyone is working to improve the situation" cannot happen if Trump gets a 2nd term.   This is why Michelle Obama made the remark last night: "If you  think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me they can can and they will, if we don't make a change in this election.  This is why we have to vote like our lives depend on it."

This followed her description of Trump as a person out of his depth in filling the job of president, e.g.

“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country.  He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.” 

Hence, any positive expectation rests on Trump's defeat and it needs to be a wipe out so he can't bitch, piss and moan about mail ballots "rigging" the election. 

One last perspective on the Economic VIX:  Over seven decades it ranged from 0.2 to 3.4.  (The numbers represent the standard deviations of quarterly annualized percentage changes in U.S. nominal GDP   over the previous 3 years  divided by the average annualized quarterly growth rate over those 3 years.)  Now, Paulsen projects the Economic VIX will hit 13 in coming months.

That may well be whether Trump is defeated and a competent administration takes over, or not.

See Also:

The uneven rally that took US stocks to a record high

And:

2020 Elections | Donald Trump

People Are Taking Trump's USPS Cheating Seriously — and We Have Impeachment to Thank

by Amanda Marcotte | August 18, 2020 - 8:09am | permalink

— from Salon

And:

Covid-19 | Healthcare Policy

Trump's Death Cult Is Crippling Local Public Health Agencies, Dooming Covid-19 Fight